Admittedly, the month of November was very busy as I was wrapping up my long term substitute assignment, and preparing music for the Christmas season (being a musician and all of course, it comes with the territory), which left me little time to blog. Apologies….apologies.
That being said, I promise more posts in the month of December as I’ll have lots of time on my hands. With Christmas break happening in schools, needless to say I won’t be able to sub! I’ll be plenty busy with music gigs and church cantatas, however, but I won’t let that stop me from catching up here on irokthekitchen. Thanks for reading and remaining a loyal fan!
The months of September and October were warm, beautiful, and full of color. We really couldn’t complain about fall here in the midwest. In a matter of literally two weeks, the temperatures dropped dramatically, the winds and clouds bombarded the skies, and snow fell. YES SNOW.
My husband and I celebrated our three year by getting annual photos taken by our friend Heather Hochstetler of Life Inspired Photography. We hit up the neighborhood of Dundee on a warm, sunny Saturday morning and had tons of fun capturing moments that we’ll cherish forever. She also took new head shots for my blog which turned out to be amazing! I thank her for her hard work and beautiful artistry and abilities in the photography department.
We shot photos at places that we’ve been to for dates, and a few that we’d like to try the next time we’re in Dundee.
The spots we hit for this shoot were:
The Dundee Dell : http://www.dundeedell.com
Blueline Coffee : http://www.bluelinecoffee.com
Dundee Cork & Bottle : http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60885-d5836820-i120042665-Dundee_Cork_and_Bottle-Omaha_Nebraska.html
Dario’s Brasserie : http://www.dariosbrasserie.com
ECreamery Ice Cream and Gelato : https://www.ecreamery.com
The French Bulldog : www.frenchbulldogomaha.com
Some other tasty places in Dundee you need to try include
Mark’s Bistro : www.marksindundee.com
and
Amsterdam Falafel & Kabob : http://www.eatafk.com
Trying to beat the first freeze, I couldn’t help but snap a few shots of the morning glories and my neighbor’s roses before their beauty was lost forever…well, at least until next year. I hope you enjoy looking at these as much I did shooting and editing them! Thanks to Lightroom for making these images pop!
Since I planted a ‘pizza garden’ this year (including vegetables like tomatoes, onions, peppers and herbs) I also had a variety of other items that I may or may not plant next year, like kale, bok choy, zucchini, and sugar snap peas. Because it was a very wet summer, the zucchini didn’t do well at all and by the time the morning glories took over, everything else had pretty much produced as much as they were going to produce by the end of July. So a flower garden it became! The sage went crazy this summer and I ended up making sage bouquets for a dining table centerpiece. I love it! It was perfect for Thanksgiving.
Like I mentioned earlier, my neighbor’s roses were blooming clear into November, until the cold came, and she gave me plenty to use as bouquets in my house as well!
It didn’t take long for the changing weather to take hold and freeze the ground and plants alike. At least the snow didn’t last too long. It wasn’t enough to cancel school, to the dismay of every child (and teacher) in town. I love that it makes the neighborhood look so clean and bright. It’s not fun to drive in, but it is pretty to look at- and photograph!
With two massive cedar trees in our yard, we have quite the abundance of wildlife to observe. That being said, I placed a bird bath and feeder in front of our house, not just to feed the animals, but to give our cat Ricky some daily entertainment. He LOVES looking out the window with wishful thinking of dinner.
We’ve had daily visits from cardinals, sparrows, juncos, robins, purple finches, and the ever infamous and very FAT squirrels. We need to come up with names for them. I’m sure Ricky already has, and I can bet they’re “Delicious”, “Tasty”, and “Nom Nom”.
” YOU WILL BE MINE”
Thanks for visiting— I promise to post reflections on Thanksgiving, a few recipes that I prepared for dinner that day, and upcoming special, holiday treats.
Goodbye Autumn (my favorite season), and HELLO Winter !!
Singing off,
-K
Beautiful Food 
Oh my word, Kori! Your picture is absolutely gorgeous and it is also cute – put emphasis on gorgeous!! I love your apron, that sexy little look from your eye – you had a great photographer. Love your smile, too!! That red lipstick really pops!! You look terrific! Now let’s talk about cookies. I have to try that chocolate chip cookie, but you also need to put those delicious brownies on the blog. This blog is just so creative – you should work for the OWH. Wake them up a little bit and give the newspaper some pizazz!!
By the way, you won’t believe this, but I got a box dropped off on my porch this afternoon. I got it about 6:00 pm. I wondered what it was as I wasn’t expecting anything. It was for 5215. I have gotten their mail before – someone new lives there now, but it was a Jessica G. I looked her up in the white pages on the computer, and she had her address, but no phone no. so I dropped the box off at her house. She wasn’t home. She needs to report this to UPS. Can you believe this????
Keep up the great cooking, girl! I’m looking forward to your next experiment. What is the difference between pastry flour and all purpose flour? Is it richer and does HyVee have some? I bought parchment paper last week in preparation for the cranberry cookies I hope – notice hope – to make!
Take care, Joyce
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Pastry Flour also is made with soft wheat and falls somewhere between all-purpose and cake flour in terms of protein content and baking properties. Pastry flour (also known as cookie flour) has a protein (gluten) of 9% to 10%. Use pastry flour for making biscuits, pie crusts, brownies, cookies and quick breads.
Here’s a good website to research the difference between specific types of flours!
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/FlourTypes.htm
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